In February, 1339, Otho died, and Albert was invested with the sole administration of affairs.
The old King of Bohemia possessed vehemence of character which neither age nor the total blindness with which he had become afflicted could repress.

He traversed the empire, and even went to France, organizing a powerful confederacy against the emperor.

The pope, Clement VI., who had always been inimical to Louis of Bavaria, influenced by John of Bohemia, deposed and excommunicated Louis, and ordered a new meeting of the diet of electors, which chose Charles, eldest son of the Bohemian monarch, and heir to that crown, emperor.
The deposed Louis fought bravely for the crown thus torn from his brow.
Albert of Austria aided him with all his energies.

Their united armies, threading the defiles of the Bohemian mountains, penetrated the very heart of the kingdom, when, in the midst of success, the deposed Emperor Louis fell dead from a stroke of apoplexy, in the year 1347.

This event left Charles of Bohemia in undisputed possession of the imperial crown.
Albert immediately recognized his claim, effected reconciliation, and becoming the friend and the ally of the emperor, pressed on cautiously but securely, year after year, in his policy of annexation.